


Loving from the shadows

by Noble_Iris



Category: Original Work
Genre: Angst, Best Friends, Friendship, M/M, Stalking, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-08
Updated: 2015-05-08
Packaged: 2018-03-29 14:35:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3899866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Noble_Iris/pseuds/Noble_Iris
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gabriel knows that he's being creepy, always watching his crush from afar, but he can't help the bittersweet smile every time he sees him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Loving from the shadows

**Author's Note:**

> I never wrote in English, I actually know English just from school or from the works I read, and I'm really sorry if someone's eyes starts to bleed after reading this.

Gabriel was always the first one to arrive in front of the school's gates.  
The sun was barely shining, the November's cold wind making the trees moving, brown leaves flying all over the streets, making small shadows. It looked as he stumbled in a cheap horror movie.  
He looked over to the windows' school, where the janitors started to open the classrooms, feeling like he shouldn't be there.  
Actually he knew he shouldn't be here but he wanted to see _him_ so badly he came to school for the last four weeks every day at six.  
It's was so boring waiting for the school buses to arrive but he liked seeing what others couldn't at that hour: houses starting to light, shops opening and the sweet smell of fresh baked bread and cookies, people running to work or to get breakfast; in just an hour the whole town was coming to life right in front of him. And he was never tired of seeing it.  
The horn from one of the school's buses woke him from his sightseeing, making him jump and he started to move away from the horde of kids getting out of the bus. He saw other two buses arrive and he started to panic, never really getting used to crowds, taking some steps backwards without  
looking and his heart almost jumped out of his chest when he heard a really deep laugh barely some centimetres from his ear.  
He turned slowly, just in time to see _him_ walking past, without even a glance at him, talking and laughing with two other friends.  
Gabriel felt his lips stretch in a bittersweet smile, heart beating fast, as always when the laid his eyes on the other boy.  
Noah was pretty popular in their school. He was tall, with short dirty blonde hair and chocolate eyes always shining with amusement, a toned body from years of swimming. He also had good grades but what made Gabriel fall in love with him was the smile he always gave every time someone greeted him, the will to help his friends without questions and never backed down from anything, the trust and loyalty he showed and the sincerity in his words. He wasn't actually perfect, he was too blunt sometimes and got angry really fast and could keep a grudge for long time, he knew how to hurt you with just a few words and never apologise if he thinks he's right, nonetheless Gabriel loved him more than he wanted to admit.  
He stayed there looking at his back until he disappeared.  
With a sigh he began to walk towards his class, trying not to touch anyone as the hallways started to flow with students.  
There were only eight people in but Gabriel was used to it since the first class was Math and no one wanted to get their brain washed fist thing in the morning.  
His desk was the first from the row near the door and everyone had to pass in front of him when entering the class and it wasn't a surprise when Noah, followed by the teacher, got it without a word but it has hard to tell you heart to calm down.  
He really tried not to stare too much at the boy, but he was like a magnet and every time he saw his form from the corner of his eye a warm felling was setting in his stomach, spreading until he felt it even in his toes. He wanted to touch him so much, or even talk to him, that it was making him mad, after all he has been in love with him for the last three years.  
The hours passed quickly, absorbing everything the teacher said, sitting silently in his chair trying to gulp down the loneliness and sadness that wanted to take over his soul but the still couldn't shake how out of place he was feeling.  
It was his last class when he felt a shiver down his spine and he glanced, out of habit, towards Noah. When he meet those deep brown eyes he felt his breath stop. He stared at the boy in shock as he noticed his eyes glitter with such sorrow that it made his chest feel tight, a knot forming in his throat. No one should have looked like that, not Noah. And knowing that it was his fault, Gabriel dropped his eyes on his hands in his lap, leaving as soon as the bell rang.  
He waited, as always, in front of the school's gates, under a tree where he could feel isolated from the students who left the school. He stayed there just a couple of minutes, until he saw Noah descend the school's stairs with one of his friends.  
He was aware that he was being too creepy and he turned wanting to leave them alone when Noah's angry voice made him stop.  
“Don't!” he almost screamed and Gabriel turned to see the other guy flinch raising his palms in a defensive pose.  
“Sorry, that was uncalled for but seriously, you stay with him far too much. You go to see him almost every day, man. You never get out with us after school.”  
Noah tried to calm down, surely something the guy said made him very unease, and with a suffering sigh he adjusted his backpack.  
“Well, he's my best friend and if I want to see him everyday it's none of your business.” Noah started to walk past the guy who was visibly shaken but when he opened his mouth to say something, the blonde turned towards him. “I will go out tonight if one of you wants, just give a call.”  
The guy closed his mouth and waved a hand in front of him like he wanted to wipe all the conversation. His expression, however, stayed guarded and the pity in his eyes made Gabriel wanted to punch him. He knew what has happening there.  
“Yeah, I will tell them. And I'm sorry again but we just... you know, we were worried. It's been weeks and...” the guy shut up when he saw Noah's expression and without a word, waved again, walking in the opposite direction.  
Gabriel saw the blonde sigh again, unaware of the glances the few students that remained in front of the school were throwing him, both of them began to walk, Gabriel in front of him.  
He actually felt bad, he didn't want to witness Noah's life out of school. Sometimes he really wished to disappear completely, he felt so invisible and alone and he knew that the only thing that was keeping him on his feet was his unrequited love. His parents were long gone and his big sister was happy and married with kids, she had her own life and more that once she forgot he existed. His only relative that loved him was his aunt, his sister's dad, that took care of him until some months ago when he turned eighteen. He never has real friends, people talked to him, he wasn't really so asocial, but they never stayed. He didn't have someone to call if he got problems with rent or to cry if someone broke his heart.  
He tried again to tone down these ugly feelings and started to walk faster, wanting to became smaller so he couldn't touch anything, because he hated it.  
He hardly remembered how he arrived in front of the huge, white building and without looking around he entered, suddenly feeling nauseous. He gulped, climbing the stairs to the third floor, sitting down on the chair in the hallway as soon as he got there.  
Gabriel didn't have to wait more that twenty minutes, a pair of black sneakers passing in front of him, entering the room next to him, without even closing the door all the way.  
He started to play with his shirt sleeve in his lap not knowing what to do.  
“Hey, red-head.” he hear from within and Gabriel instinctively brought a hand to his hair then cursing himself for his habit. “I'd ask you what are you doing but whatever. So... Math was boring, I don't even know why I'm going since there are like, umh, eight people every time and the teacher never does anything new. Science, unfortunately, was also boring since it was just theory and damn, Miss Feosy wants us to read a book until the end of the month and present it in front of the class. I feel like in kindergarten every time in her class, that woman forgets that this is our last year in high school. And lunch... well, it was boring too. Sure, I stayed with the guys and all, we laughed and Matt as always talked until he remembered that he got to eat and got sauce all over himself and left home to change, but I can never shake that felling... that something is wrong, you know?” and his voice turned almost into a whisper at the end.  
Gabriel got up and slowly went in front of the door, seeing Noah sitting in a plastic chair with a grim expression on his face that slowly turned sadder and sadder and Gabriel slowly felt as his heart started to break.  
Noah dragged the chair nearer and looked for a moment at his hand then placed it on the pillow, as if he wished to touch those curly, red strands of hair that were laying scattered all around the other boy's head, and when he talked, his voice was rougher and he swallowed several times before he opened this mouth.  
But when he did it, Gabriel remembered why he wanted to stay invisible.  
“I'm your best friend, right? You promised me that we will be best friends forever. Why won't you wake up?... wake up for me.”  
Gabriel opened his mouth to answer but right in that moment a nurse come in and he had to suppress a shiver when she closed the door. He took a step in and saw as Noah stood up trying to set his face in a more neutral expression but his shining eyes were already too full of feelings.  
“Something is wrong?” he asked serious eyeing the boy on the bed for a few seconds.  
The nurse seemed to study him before she answered.  
“His sister wants to disconnect him.” she said slowly and Noah's chest stopped moving for some seconds watching the nurse in horror but suddenly his eyebrows knit together in anger.  
“She can't do it! It's been only four weeks, he can wake up on his own! She can't! SHE CAN'T!” Noah was pacing around the chair, the nurse trying to calm him down before she had to chase him away from the room.  
“But she can't.” he said weaker, Gabriel barely registering it.  
He was looking at the body on the hospital's bed: a eighteen old boy with redish curly hair, slim with an almost too white skin and if he could open his eyes he knew they would be silver-green. He liked to studying, but not for school, he was just a really curious type and he wanted to know more. He hated crowds since he was little and got lost too much. He got bullied a while in the first years of high school because he mingled too much and he hated to be seen as a weak person even if he looked like one. He started to live alone almost a year ago, and before that he lived with his aunt. He loved travelling, drawing and watching people from afar and guessing their body language and face expressions.  
But more than everything he loved his best and childhood friend.  
And that's why he refused to face the world.  
He didn't registered how much he stayed there, watching his body's chest rise and fall on that bed but when he looked up the saw the nurse staring at him.  
He jumped, his heart starting to beat faster, in syntony with the beeps of the machine his body was connected to, and he stared back at her.  
She wasn't looking through him, as everyone else, she was actually looking at him, directly in his eyes.  
“Seems like I can't wait for your sister to be here, or you will be able to escape. Time's up.” she said walking in front of him, raising a hand and touching him on the cheek.  
The last thing he saw was Noah's shocking face looking at them and the machine that was now making a high pitched, regular noise.


End file.
